National Library Lovers Month reminds us why libraries are important

Feb. 26—PRINCETON — Along with fire departments, grocery stores and schools, public libraries are an important part of many communities, so their services to the public are being celebrated this month.

February is National Library Lovers Month, a time for celebrating the services that libraries provide to the public. Libraries across the region are doing more in this internet age than loaning out books.

"It's still a central place to gain information," said Benjamin Broyles, a clerk at the Princeton Public Library. "We still have a repository of information that can't be found in other places; moreover, we have a lot of physical records. We have an archive of older newspapers, and we do have access to computers."

"Another example is our West Virginia Room," he said. "It has a large amount of local history. We also have some materials from local authorities that isn't disseminated very much. Also in the West Virginia Room, we have tons of microfilm rolls with newspapers from the early 1900s and we do believe, some from the 1800s."

Facilities like the Princeton Public Library are a good hub for community events, Broyles said.

"We do have book sales every month," he added.

Public libraries also offer computer access to many local people who do not have internet access, said Director Eva McGuire of the Craft Memorial Library.

"We still have a good portion of our population that do not have access to the internet," McGuire said. "They don't have computers. They look for jobs, and many jobs now have only an online applications. They use computers at the library to fill them out."

McGuire said the library has been helping students doing much of their schoolwork through remote and distance learning.

"Just because a child is given a laptop doesn't mean they have access to the internet at home," she stated. "They come to the library to download work, to submit their schoolwork and to do research."

Besides computer access, libraries often hold regional information that's not always available on the internet. The Eastern Regional Coal Archives at the Craft Memorial Library is one example.

"That's history of our area," McGuire said.

And in this age of ebooks, there remains a place for shelves full of the printed variety.

"We still have a lot of people who want to read print copies of things," McGuire said.

Programs the public can attend at the library are offering relief from the isolation inflicted on many people by COVID-19.

"I think a lot of people appreciate more being able to come out and attend programs, and see others in a safe setting," she added.

Further south in Welch, the McDowell County Public Library offers its patrons internet service, too, in an area where access can be especially hard to find. and a lot of patrons still want to read books that they can hold in their hands, said Director Barbara Fields. The library also has the local Welch Daily News in its archives; some copies go back to about 1918. This makes the library a resource for people researching their families' pasts and local history.

"We have a lot of people from out of state who contact us wanting obituaries, certain archives, and we go and look them up," Fields said. "You'd be surprised. We get three or four calls a day. A man out of Jacksonville, Fla. called about a murder that took place here."

People come to research the microfilm archives, and some even call the library to find telephone numbers, she added. Libraries also offer other resources; for instance, they still offer tax forms. and the McDowell County Public Library has a West Virginia History Room with books and displays.

"We also have a children's library and we have a story hour," Fields said. The library also has a book club and a music club; both clubs meet once a month.

Libraries are like community centers, said Assistant Director Chris Wilkes of the Tazewell County Public Library, which has branches in Tazewell, Va. as well as Bluefield, Va. and Richlands, Va.

"We bring in a lot of different age groups from cross the spectrum. We have upper-class patrons and lower-class patrons and welcome them as equals, and that's how we like to look at the library," Wilkes said. "It's just a common space for the public, so you can have different people from different groups and demographics in the same place."

The Tazewell County Public Library also does a lot of outreach programs, he added.

"I'm going to be doing some programs with the historical society soon. Our children's librarian, she goes and works with preschools, works with Main Street School in Tazewell which is a private Christian school," Wilkes said. "We also do a lot of work directly with the high schools. In the area, we have a program where we automatically give digital library cards to all the students in Tazewell County for free so they can check out ebooks or look at some of our databases; also, beyond just books, we have historical resources you probably wouldn't be able to find in other areas. Our Virginia Room has stuff not just about Tazewell, but about Southwest Virginia, about southern West Virginia."

The library is working to make more local materials available online.

"Right now, I have about 100 yearbooks that I'm getting ready to send to the Library of Virginia in order to get them digitized for the public," Wilkes stated. "You can be anywhere in the country, but if you want to see your yearbook from 1973, you can pull it up online; and I'm in the process of digitizing newspapers here that are Tazewell County like Clinch Valley News. We're getting those digitized through the Library of Virginia."

Public libraries are important in rural communities like Grundy, Va., said Brian F. Shortridge, director of the Buchanan County Public Library.

"We are very much like the town square," he stated. "People can come here regardless of race or age. We are the great democratization of this world. We're no longer just a repository for books. We're very much the meeting place where ideas are shared. I think that's one of the things we can thrive on. Hopefully, we'll get past this pandemic and get back to work."

Like other libraries, the Buchanan County Public Library offers special programs for the public. In one upcoming example, Francis Gary Powers Jr., son of the U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers, will be at the library Feb. 28 at 6 p.m. He will be speaking about his father's experiences before and after being shot down over the Soviet Union.

In another program, Burt Foster, a winner on season two of the History Channel's program "Forged In Fire" will be at the library on March 3. The program will begin at 6 p.m. In the show, blade makers compete to make knives and swords.

"He will describe the process and tools needed to make a knife," Shortridge said. "He will take the audience step-by-step through the forging process. He will display examples of his work and answer questions from the audience."

The library is working to serve as many people as possible, he stated.

"We're trying to offer a great diversity of programs for people who have a lot of different interests," Shortridge said. "We try to serve the entire public. We're a public library, and we try to take that responsibility seriously."

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com